9 of the World's Most High-Tech Airports

Solar-paneled rooftops. Baggage carousels that reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Even terminal seats with their own air diffusers. When it comes to modern amenities, some airports go above and beyond the standard fare.

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport

In 2007, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) received a Voluntary Airport Low Emissions grant of nearly $5.1 million from the Federal Aviation Administration to reduce operational emissions at its new 824,000-square-foot North Terminal, one of the first airport complexes completely designed and constructed after 9/11. The design cuts emissions largely by making it easier to connect to aircraft without fuel-burning intermediaries. North Terminal has hyrdrants that can fuel planes directly, to cut out the need to gas up a fleet of fuel trucks, and units to deliver temperature-controlled air and 400-Hz electrical power units to planes parked at boarding gates, decreasing the reliance on diesel-powered portable ground power units. In addition, the terminal's streamlined design allows taxiing planes to follow a more efficient path from runway to gate.

Düsseldorf International Airport

Düsseldorf International Airport

Constructed this past fall in just eight weeks, the advanced 8400-panel solar array at Düsseldorf International Airport in Germany covers an area as big as six soccer fields. It's the largest ground-mounted solar-power plant within the security zone of a German airport, and it is easily visible for passengers in flight arriving at or departing from Düsseldorf. Beginning in 2012, the plant is expected to generate 2 megawatts of energy per year—not nearly enough to meet all the airport's energy needs, but a start. And just so air travelers appreciate the array, the airport has a large monitor that displays how much energy the panels are creating and the mass of carbon emissions they are preventing.